As sworn deposition of Hillary Clinton's closest aides gets underway in the civil suit brought by Judicial Watch, an interesting motion has been filed by the legal team of Cheryl Mills, a former top Clinton aide.
The motion that was filed this week asked that any audio or video of Mills' upcoming deposition not be allowed to be released to the public, due to concerns that the video may be used to "exploit Ms. Mills' image and voice in an unfair and misleading manner." Or said otherwise, Mills doesn't want her body language and uncertainty in her voice – as she answers questions about the way Clinton managed communications – to be shown to the public.
As The Hill reports
Lawyers for a former top aide to Hillary Clinton filed a motion on Wednesday asking a federal court to bar a conservative watchdog group from releasing a videotape of her upcoming deposition as part of a lawsuit related to Clinton’s private email server.
The aide, Cheryl Mills, “supports the release of the written transcript of her deposition to the public,” her lawyers wrote in a filing on Wednesday. “But no additional public interest would be served by the publication of the audiovisual recording.”
The lawyers said they "are concerned that snippets or soundbites of the deposition may be publicized in a way that exploits Ms. Mills’ image and voice in an unfair and misleading manner.”
“Judicial Watch should not be allowed to manipulate Ms. Mills’ testimony, and invade her personal privacy, to advance a partisan agenda that should have nothing to do with this litigation,” they said.
Additionally, lawyers are saying that Ms. Mills isn't a party to the action, rather Mills is a private citizen appearing voluntarily and as such Judicial Watch shouldn't be allowed to invade her privacy or manipulate any testimony.
"Ms. Mills is not a party to this action. She is a private citizen appearing voluntarily to assist in providing the limited discovery the Court has permitted. … Judicial Watch should not be allowed to manipulate Ms. Mills’ testimony, and invade her personal privacy, to advance a partisan agenda that should have nothing to do with this litigation."
So far, Judicial Watch as refused to agree not to publicize any portion of the video from the deposition, leading Mills' lawyers to claim that the video may be used as part of a partisan attack against Clinton.
“That refusal raises a serious concern that Judicial Watch plans to use the recording of Ms. Mills’ deposition, and exploit her image and words, as part of a partisan attack against Secretary Clinton and her presidential campaign,” the lawyers claimed, citing Judicial Watch’s “long-standing antagonism” to Clinton.
Judge Emmet Sullivan gave Judicial Watch and the State Department — the two parties involved in the case — until Thursday to file their responses.
Politico adds that depositions for former Clinton aide Huma Abedin and computer technician Bryan Pagliano are now scheduled to take place in the coming weeks, and if the judge agrees to Mills' request, it is likely that others will ask for similar treatment.
As a reminder, the civil suit brought by Judicial Watch is separate from the FBI's probe, and alleges that Clinton and her top aides tried to thwart federal record keeping laws by using a private server to conduct official business.
It is interesting that Mills wants to only have the transcript of the deposition released but not the video – wouldn't want the public to be able to see her struggle to answer any questions around what really takes place behind the curtain now would we.
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